Are We Having an Energy Crisis?

Having travelled (and lived) in parts of the world that have no electricity, I find it somewhat strange when I read about the U.S. “energy crisis.” In the last decade we have become increasingly educated and warned of the limits of these ‘natural’ resources. Even so, we find it unimaginable we will ever be without them. But according to recent U. N. statistics, there are as many as 2 billion people on the planet who suffer from “energy poverty”—the lack of electricity, natural gas, or any modern fuels used for cooking or for heating homes.

As I read the above statistics, I couldn’t help thinking how many Christians live, spiritually, like impoverished peoples of developing countries. They live as though they were energy deprived, that is, unable to access God’s indwelling, resident power to live victoriously. But it should not be so.

God has given us all the ‘energy’ we need to live effective Christian lives—He energizes us with His own life “by God’s mighty power at work within us” (Eph. 3:20). The Greek word for “work” is the word “energeo,” which of course is where we get out English word energy! The writer of Hebrews uses this word when he says the Word of God is alive and active [full of energy] (4:12).

So why should any Christian ever have an energy crisis? There can be only one reason: he is still operating in his own. Whenever you feel like you have run out of the energy it takes to be obedient and please God, it is probably because you are accessing your own; God promises you will never run out of His. “For God is working [energizing] in you, giving you the desire to obey Him and the power to do what pleases Him” (Phil. 2:13).